I don’t get it. There are literally dozens of airports for MSFS but there’s like two planes, and no jets, turboprops, WHY? Planes are what makes a flight simulator, a simulator, yet none of them really work 100% in this sim, especially the airliners… And to add insult to injury, PMDG will not release a plane until late next year…soooo WHY? what’s going on?
The scenery is a lot easier to develop than aircraft.
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The planes are not difficult to develop. But on a platform with an inadequate SDK, that is the challenge.
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Because the SDK/Airplane editor isn’t done yet.
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I not agree! Only partwise.
To build a homecockpit that LOOKS real, its not much difficult… but to work like real, it takes years!
you can compare it with the sim-planes. Its not all about a “good looking plane model…” all the systems in the backround are much much more work intensive than the “skin”
Therefore, if you want a plane, that works like the real one, you have to invest MUCH work!
Scenerys only have to LOOK like real.
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As said by others, SDK isn’t complete. Be patient, they will come.
Not sure why this has been put to a vote.
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What planes are you asking for?
Simple VFR planes are pretty easy to implement. That is, why the first ones are available out there.
But do you have any idea, how complex the development of some study-level jet airliners like the PMDG 737 is?
Also of course they are dependent on the SDK, which is still WIP.
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Why? C’mon man. Scenery just sits there. It doesn’t do anything. It’s just something to look at. An aircraft has all the graphics (inside and out), engines, fuel systems, aerodynamics, electronics, etc.
How about you go take a crack at doing your own plane if you’re so bewildered as to why there aren’t that many yet.
Hi all. I moved this out of wishlist and over to General Discussion & Feedback.
As someone unironically posted here earlier today: Simming = Graphics!
To be blunt, yes they are…
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Quite simply, time.
Creating sceneries is much easier than airplanes. I usually can create a new airport (without custom 3D in a few days). Also if a developer has created a blender building for example, is very easy to port it from FSX, P3D or XP into MSFS, so there is plenty of reusability.
Now for airplanes, MSFS has the inherited from FSX the flying model by numbers, this means that you need to do all the calculations and put it on an info file, if you miss a number it has a massive impact in the flying performance. Some of these numbers can be migrated from FSX but others need to be re calculated. (XP uses the aircraft shape, thats why its more accurate). Finally, the interaction with the environment and flying systems is different in MSFS, some of them are missing or not implemented in the SDK hence some complex airplanes can not be migrated yet (i.e. PMDG), and to add a bit of dissapointment, the aircraft editor is non existent at the moment.
Just my PoV
I have a question in regards to “study level planes”.
In simulators past, developers like A2A, PMDG and Majestic have implemented most of their features outside of FSX and injected their code through “hacks” into the simulator.
My initial impression was, this will no longer be neccessary anymore with MSFS. But seeing how much WIP the SDK seems to be, will we have another situation like this in the long term or can MSFS really support complex code natively?
I was thinking of the Majestic Q400, that even injected their flight model from outside the sim. How much has the basic principle of the FM changed in MSFS (look-up tables vs. real time calculations)? Can someone knowledgable answer that for me?
Airports and scenery are the easiest and fasted third-party content to develop.
Aircraft are the most challenging and time consuming.
I’m not sure where your very… dramatic… surprise comes from since this is how things have always been in this industry for over two decades.
If PMDG taking a year to release their 737 adds “insult to injury” I’m guessing you must have felt unbearably insulted and injured with previous simulators, since getting aircraft with that level of complexity took much longer than a year.
The main reason why it’s taking time for these aircraft to be released is because their developers are waiting for that capability to be implemented within the SDK, which isn’t something quick and easy to do.
Those devs have been involved in the creation of the SKD from the ground up, so implementing external code compatibility to avoid having to use hacks and backdoors is pretty much the whole point.
Incidentally, if they had to go the usual hacky way, implementing aircraft that complex would likely take even longer.
I wouldn’t 100% exclude that hacks may ever be required, simply because it’s likely not possible to 100% predict what kind of feature third-party developers may come up with say five years in the future, but who knows.